Method and apparatus for presenting advertisements

ABSTRACT

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a controller to determine a behavioral profile of an end user from packet traffic generated by activities of the end user, and share the behavioral profile with a network element for distributing targeted advertisements to the end user according to the behavioral profile. Additional embodiments are disclosed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/418,430 filed Apr. 3, 2009, which is a divisional of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/458,164, filed Jul. 18, 2006, which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates generally to communication services andmore specifically to a method and apparatus for presentingadvertisements.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Online advertising has evolved from the early non-contextualpay-per-impression model to the currently predominant contextualpay-per-click model. In non-contextual pay-per-impression model, ads areplaced on publishers' websites with little or no regard to visitors'interest. Payment from advertisers to ad brokers and from ad brokers topublishers are typically tied to the number of times a particular ad isdisplayed to visitors, hence the name pay per impression.

This model has in large part been replaced by the contextualpay-per-click model so that payment of an ad is directly tied into itsperformance. Advertisers only pay for the clicks (or number of times anad was clicked by users), not the impressions or number of times an adwas displayed. Thus, in contextual pay-per-click online advertisingmodels, the success of an ad is measured by its click-thru rate, whichis defined as the number of times the ad is clicked by any user over thenumber of times the ad was displayed. Consequently, the more targetedthe content, the higher the click-thru rate, and the more revenue for adbrokers and website publishers.

Typically, ad brokers profile subscribers via cookies. Cookies from anad broker track end user clicks on the ads provided by the ad broker. Anad broker has no visibility to websites which an end user visits. As aresult, an ad broker's ability to profile an end user is limited.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary embodiment of a communication system;

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary method operating in the communicationsystem;

FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary block diagram of the operations depicted bythe method of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary diagrammatic representation of a machine inthe form of a computer system within which a set of instructions, whenexecuted, may cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the present disclosure can entail a computer-readablestorage medium having computer instructions to monitor packet trafficassociated with an end user from one or more network elements of acommunication system providing communication services to a messagingdevice of the user causing the packet traffic, determine a behavioralprofile of the end user from the monitored packet traffic, and submit toan advertisement element the behavioral profile.

Another embodiment of the present disclosure can entail a system havinga controller to determine a behavioral profile of an end user frompacket traffic generated by activities of the end user, and share thebehavioral profile with a network element for distributing targetedadvertisements to the end user according to the behavioral profile.

Yet another embodiment of the present disclosure can determining abehavioral profile of an end user from packet traffic initiated by theend user, and providing one or more systems access to the behavioralprofile to identify advertisement.

FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary embodiment of a communication system 100.The communication system 100 can comprise a number of wired and wirelessaccess points (WAPs). In the case of wireline communications, the WAPcan represent a central office 111 coupled to a building 115 by way of adistribution hub such as a service area interface (SAI) not shown inFIG. 1. The central office 111 can provide traditional circuit switchedservices to a plain old telephone service (POTS) terminal. An IP network101 managed by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) supporting packetizedvoice, video, and data directed to messaging devices 116 such as an IPTVterminal, a Voice over IP (VoIP) terminal, and/or a computercommunicating over for example a WiFi 113 or xDSL interface.Alternatively, such services can be an integral part of the servicesprovided by the central office 111.

For wireless communications, a WAP can represent a plurality of wirelessbase stations 114 operating according to a frequency reuse architecturethat provides over-the-air coverage to a large geographic region ofroaming messaging devices 116.

Some of the messaging devices 116 can operate as multimode devices

Accordingly, said roaming devices can utilize POTS or VoIP services whenin the building 115, or cellular services outside the building 115. Acellular network 109 can utilize circuit-switched technology for voiceand data services such as GSM-GPRS, EDGE, CDMA-1X, EV/DO, UMTS, andother known and next generation cellular communications technologies.

Alternatively, or in combination, other wireless access technologies canbe applied to the present disclosure such as Worldwide Interoperabilityfor Microwave Access (WiMAX), ultra wide band (UWB), Bluetooth.™., andsoftware defined radio (SDR). SDR provides a means to access public andprivate communication spectrum with any number of communicationprotocols that can be dynamically downloaded over-the-air to themessaging devices 116. Other present and future generation wirelessaccess technologies can also be applied to the present disclosure.

The communication system 100 can further comprise an inspection element103, a publisher element 105, and an advertisement element 107. Theinspection element 103 can represent hardware and/or software managed byfor example an ISP that monitors packet traffic associated withmessaging devices 116 of an end user. The publisher element 105 canrepresent a web server operated by a publisher that publishes contentand advertisements by way of a website accessible to Internet users. Theadvertisement element 107 can represent hardware and/or softwareoperated by an ad broker for supplying to the publisher element 105advertisements which can be selected according to behavioral and/orcontent profiles derived from the inspection and publisher elements 103,105 as will be described shortly. Once advertisements have been selectedand forwarded to the publisher element 105, the publisher element 105presents a web page to end users with the publisher's content andtargeted advertisements. Advertisements can represent objects presentedsingly or combination as audible, still or moving images. It would beappreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art that the inspection,publisher, and advertisement elements 103, 105, 107 can operate singlyor in any combination such as system 102.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary method 200 operating in portions of thecommunication system 100. Method 200 begins with step 202 in which theinspection element 103 monitors packet traffic in the communicationsystem 100 for an end user. The inspection element 103 can utilizecommon inspection technology such as deep packet inspection (DPI) whichcan analyze packet traffic from any layer in an Open SystemsInterconnection (OSI) model such as packet headers and payloads toassess the behavior of a target end user utilizing common marketanalysis tools. Alternatively, DPI can be applied to a TransmissionControl Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) applied to the packettraffic. Thus for each of its subscribers, the ISP can perform variouslevels of DPI analysis to determine a demographic and/or psychographicend user profile on the product and service interests of its subscriberbase. With this information, the inspection element 103 can generate instep 206 a behavioral profile of each end user of the ISP.

In a supplemental embodiment, the inspection element 103 can receive instep 204 from the advertisement element 107, search criteria that can beapplied to a number of websites. The search criteria can include anumber of search terms (e.g., for cars, boats, clothing, accessories,computers, electronics, office supplies, home supplies, travel, etc.)which can be accompanied with search guidelines (e.g., if the end uservisits a website related to cars, inspect the following keywords in theuser's packets). Thus steps 202-204 can be combined as another means toperform market analysis on packet traffic and thereby generate abehavioral profile in step 206 for each end user of the ISP.

In step 208 the publisher element 105 can register one or more websitesmanaged thereby with the advertisement element 107. In this step, theadvertisement element 105 can be programmed to determine a publisherprofile for each website by inspecting the content published thereby anddetermining from said content marketing patterns that identify adshaving a high likelihood of targeting end user interests associated withsaid content. Thus with a publisher profile, and behavioral profiles fortargeted end users, the advertisement element 105 can target subscribersof the ISP more precisely than prior art systems. In an alternativeembodiment, steps 206 and 208 can be reversed in order. That is, theorder of determining a publisher profile and a behavioral profile has noeffect on the present disclosure. In yet another alternative embodiment,the inspection element 103 can proceed from step 206 to step 212bypassing the need for determining a publisher profile. In thisembodiment, the behavioral profile of each end user would be utilizedalone to target ISP subscribers.

With the behavioral profile and publisher profile (if available), thepublisher element 105 can be programmed in step 212 to check for enduser visits to a website managed thereby. When an end user visit isdetected, the publisher element 105 proceeds to step 214 where itsubmits an advertisement request to the advertisement element 107. Theadvertisement request can include a number of operational parameterssuch as an identity of the end user visiting the website (e.g., an IPaddress associated therewith), a script (e.g., a Java script), and/orphysical and software constraints for presenting advertisements at adesignated location in a web page of the website visited by the enduser. The advertisement element 107 in step 216 requests from theinspection element 103 the behavioral profile of the end user visitingthe website.

Once it is received, the advertisement element proceeds to step 218where it selects one or more advertisements according to the behavioralprofile (and the publisher profile if available). In step 220, thepublisher element 105 receives and presents the one or moreadvertisements to the end user. The presentation of advertisements canbe audio only, visual only, still or moving images, or combinationsthereof. Once the advertisements are presented, the publisher element105 can be programmed to track end user selections (“clicks”) of saidadvertisements. If no clicks are detected, the publisher element 105 canbe programmed not to submit fees for advertisements.

If on the other hand one or more advertisement selections are detected,the publishing element 105 proceeds to step 224 where it submits fee perclick to the advertisement element 107, which relays said fee to acorresponding advertiser (a pay per click business model).Alternatively, step 224 can be modified so that click fees areaccumulated over periodic payment intervals (e.g., month-to-month) andsubmitted to the advertisement element 107 and thereafter to theadvertiser over said intervals. Upon receiving a payment from theadvertiser, the advertisement element 107 in step 226 keeps a portion ofthe payment for fulfilling its brokerage services and submits theremainder to the publisher element 105. In an alternative embodiment,the publisher element 105 can be programmed to proceed from step 220 tostep 225 where it submits an impression fee to the advertisement elementwhich relays said fee to the advertiser (a pay per impression businessmodel). Upon receiving payment, the advertisement element 107 performsrevenue sharing as described in step 226. FIG. 3 depicts an exemplaryblock diagram of the operations depicted by the method 200.

It would be evident to an artisan with ordinary skill in the art thatthe aforementioned embodiments can be modified, reduced, or enhancedwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the claims describedbelow. For example, method 200 can be applied in the context of an enduser visiting a website from a cell phone or personal digital assistantrather than a computer. The advertisement model described above can beapplied as a push rather than a pull business model. For instance, theadvertisement element 107 can proactively submit an advertisement to theend user's messaging device 116 prior to the end user visiting a websitebased on its analysis of the behavioral profile supplied by theinspection element. Moreover, the order and timing of steps 202-225 canbe modified without substantially changing the essence of the presentdisclosure

These are but a few examples of other embodiments that can be read intothe claims. Accordingly, the reader is directed to the claims below fora fuller understanding of the breadth and scope of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary diagrammatic representation of a machine inthe form of a computer system 400 within which a set of instructions,when executed, may cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed above. In some embodiments, the machine operatesas a standalone device. In some embodiments, the machine may beconnected (e.g., using a network) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or aclient user machine in server-client user network environment, or as apeer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment.

The machine may comprise a server computer, a client user computer, apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a laptop computer, a desktopcomputer, a control system, a network router, switch or bridge, or anymachine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential orotherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. It will beunderstood that a device of the present disclosure includes broadly anyelectronic device that provides voice, video or data communication.Further, while a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shallalso be taken to include any collection of machines that individually orjointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform anyone or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The computer system 400 may include a processor 402 (e.g., a centralprocessing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU, or both), a mainmemory 404 and a static memory 406, which communicate with each othervia a bus 408. The computer system 400 may further include a videodisplay unit 410 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), a flat panel, asolid state display, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)). The computer system400 may include an input device 412 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor controldevice 414 (e.g., a mouse), a disk drive unit 416, a signal generationdevice 418 (e.g., a speaker or remote control) and a network interfacedevice 420.

The disk drive unit 416 may include a machine-readable medium 422 onwhich is stored one or more sets of instructions (e.g., software 424)embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions describedherein, including those methods illustrated above. The instructions 424may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the mainmemory 404, the static memory 406, and/or within the processor 402during execution thereof by the computer system 400. The main memory 404and the processor 402 also may constitute machine-readable media.

Dedicated hardware implementations including, but not limited to,application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arrays andother hardware devices can likewise be constructed to implement themethods described herein. Applications that may include the apparatusand systems of various embodiments broadly include a variety ofelectronic and computer systems. Some embodiments implement functions intwo or more specific interconnected hardware modules or devices withrelated control and data signals communicated between and through themodules, or as portions of an application-specific integrated circuit.Thus, the example system is applicable to software, firmware, andhardware implementations.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, themethods described herein are intended for operation as software programsrunning on a computer processor. Furthermore, software implementationscan include, but not limited to, distributed processing orcomponent/object distributed processing, parallel processing, or virtualmachine processing can also be constructed to implement the methodsdescribed herein.

The present disclosure contemplates a machine readable medium containinginstructions 424, or that which receives and executes instructions 424from a propagated signal so that a device connected to a networkenvironment 426 can send or receive voice, video or data, and tocommunicate over the network 426 using the instructions 424. Theinstructions 424 may further be transmitted or received over a network426 via the network interface device 420.

While the machine-readable medium 422 is shown in an example embodimentto be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should betaken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralizedor distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) thatstore the one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readablemedium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable ofstoring, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by themachine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of themethodologies of the present disclosure.

The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly be taken toinclude, but not be limited to: solid-state memories such as a memorycard or other package that houses one or more read-only (non-volatile)memories, random access memories, or other re-writable (volatile)memories; magneto-optical or optical medium such as a disk or tape;and/or a digital file attachment to e-mail or other self-containedinformation archive or set of archives is considered a distributionmedium equivalent to a tangible storage medium. Accordingly, thedisclosure is considered to include any one or more of amachine-readable medium or a distribution medium, as listed herein andincluding art-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which thesoftware implementations herein are stored.

Although the present specification describes components and functionsimplemented in the embodiments with reference to particular standardsand protocols, the disclosure is not limited to such standards andprotocols. Each of the standards for Internet and other packet switchednetwork transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP) representexamples of the state of the art. Such standards are periodicallysuperseded by faster or more efficient equivalents having essentiallythe same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards and protocolshaving the same functions are considered equivalents.

The illustrations of embodiments described herein are intended toprovide a general understanding of the structure of various embodiments,and they are not intended to serve as a complete description of all theelements and features of apparatus and systems that might make use ofthe structures described herein. Many other embodiments will be apparentto those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. Otherembodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, such that structuraland logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing fromthe scope of this disclosure. Figures are also merely representationaland may not be drawn to scale. Certain proportions thereof may beexaggerated, while others may be minimized Accordingly, thespecification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative ratherthan a restrictive sense.

Such embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be referred toherein, individually and/or collectively, by the term “invention” merelyfor convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope ofthis application to any single invention or inventive concept if morethan one is in fact disclosed. Thus, although specific embodiments havebeen illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciated that anyarrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substitutedfor the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to coverany and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments.Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments notspecifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in theart upon reviewing the above description.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R.§1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quicklyascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted withthe understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit thescope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing DetailedDescription, it can be seen that various features are grouped togetherin a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure.This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting anintention that the claimed embodiments require more features than areexpressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claimsreflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of asingle disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are herebyincorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing onits own as a separately claimed subject matter.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-readable storage device, comprisingcomputer instructions which, responsive to being executed by aprocessor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:monitoring packet traffic associated with an end user device, the packettraffic being associated with communication services provided to the enduser device by a first entity; determining demographic and psychographicinformation associated with the end user device based on the monitoringof the packet traffic; determining a behavioral profile for the end userdevice based on the demographic and psychographic information; andsubmitting the behavioral profile over a network to an advertisementelement, wherein the advertisement element is operated by a secondentity different from the first entity.
 2. The computer-readable storagedevice of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise: receivingsearch criteria from the advertisement element; and detecting a websiteselection by the end user device, wherein the packet traffic beingmonitored is limited to the website and is according to the searchcriteria.
 3. The computer-readable storage device of claim 1, whereinthe operations further comprise: receiving search criteria from theadvertisement element; detecting a website selection by the end userdevice, wherein the website selection occurs after the submitting of thebehavioral profile over the network to the advertisement element;monitoring additional packet traffic associated with the websiteaccording to the search criteria; and updating the behavioral profileaccording to the monitoring of the additional packet traffic.
 4. Thecomputer-readable storage device of claim 3, wherein the search criteriacomprises search terms with associated search guidelines.
 5. Thecomputer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the submitting ofthe behavioral profile over the network to the advertisement elementcauses the advertisement element to select an advertisement according tothe behavioral profile and to submit the advertisement over the networkto a publisher element.
 6. The computer-readable storage device of claim5, wherein the publisher element operates a website, and wherein atleast a portion of the packet traffic being monitored is associated withthe website.
 7. The computer-readable storage device of claim 1, whereinthe monitoring of the packet traffic comprises analyzing headers of thepacket traffic.
 8. The computer-readable storage device of claim 1,wherein the operations further comprise receiving a request for thebehavioral profile from the advertisement element, wherein thesubmitting of the behavioral profile over the network to theadvertisement element is in response to the request.
 9. Thecomputer-readable storage device of claim 1, wherein the end user deviceis a mobile communication device.
 10. A method, comprising: receiving,by an inspection element including a processor, search criteria over anetwork from an advertisement element; monitoring, by the inspectionelement, packet traffic associated with an end user device, the packettraffic being associated with communication services provided to the enduser device by a first entity, the monitoring of the packet trafficbeing based on the search criteria; determining, by the inspectionelement, a behavioral profile for the end user device based on themonitoring of the packet traffic; and submitting, by the inspectionelement, the behavioral profile over the network to the advertisementelement, wherein the advertisement element is operated by a secondentity different from the first entity.
 11. The method of claim 10,comprising: detecting a website selection by the end user device,wherein the website selection occurs after the submitting of thebehavioral profile over the network to the advertisement element; andmonitoring additional packet traffic associated with the websiteaccording to the search criteria.
 12. The method of claim 11, comprisingupdating the behavioral profile according to the monitoring of theadditional packet traffic.
 13. The method of claim 10, wherein thesearch criteria comprises search terms with associated searchguidelines.
 14. The method of claim 10, wherein the submitting of thebehavioral profile over the network to the advertisement element causesthe advertisement element to select an advertisement according to thebehavioral profile and to submit the advertisement over the network to apublisher element.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the publisherelement operates a website, and wherein at least a portion of the packettraffic being monitored is associated with the website.
 16. The methodof claim 10, wherein the monitoring of the packet traffic comprisesanalyzing headers of the packet traffic.
 17. The method of claim 10,comprising receiving a request for the behavioral profile from theadvertisement element, wherein the submitting of the behavioral profileover the network to the advertisement element is in response to therequest.
 18. An inspection element, comprising: a memory to storecomputer instructions; a network interface device that interfaces with acommunication system; and a controller coupled with the memory and thenetwork interface, wherein the controller, responsive to executing thecomputer instructions, performs operations comprising: monitoring packettraffic associated with an end user device, the packet traffic beingassociated with communication services provided to the end user deviceby the communication system operated by a first entity; determining abehavioral profile for the end user device based on the monitoring ofthe packet traffic; receiving a request for the behavioral profile froman advertisement element; and submitting the behavioral profile over anetwork to an advertisement element in response to the request, whereinthe advertisement element is operated by a second entity different fromthe first entity.
 19. The inspection element of claim 18, wherein theoperations further comprise: receiving search criteria from theadvertisement element; detecting a website selection by the end userdevice, wherein the website selection occurs after the submitting of thebehavioral profile over the network to the advertisement element;monitoring additional packet traffic associated with the websiteaccording to the search criteria; and updating the behavioral profileaccording to the monitoring of the additional packet traffic.
 20. Theinspection element of claim 18, wherein the operations further comprisedetermining the behavioral profile by monitoring a plurality of layersof an open systems interconnection model protocol used by the packettraffic.